Keeping ground surfaces, particularly roads and airport runways, free of ice has long been a major problem in geographical regions where temperatures drop below freezing. Over the years, many methods and devices have been developed and constructed to clear such ground surfaces of ice.
Some methods of clearing ground surfaces of ice include scarifying the ice, which consists in cutting grooves into the ice to increase the surface area that is exposed to warming rays of the sun. Numerous devices with rake attachments or cutter blades are known for scarifying or raking ground surfaces. However, in many cases, such methods do not provide the desired result quickly enough since the ice is not completely removed, but merely scarred, and the sun has to perform the remaining of the work.
Another method consists in melting the ice through a chemical reaction. Chemical methods of de-icing ground surfaces include spraying a de-icing fluid or scattering de-icing crystals or solids over the ice-covered surface. One common disadvantage of these two methods is that, as the ice melts, the water flows toward low-lying areas, entraining the de-icing chemicals with it. This effectively removes the de-icing chemicals from high-lying areas. Therefore, to gain efficiency, the chemical method needs to be combined with the scarifying method, which grooves tend to retain the chemicals. A consequent drawback is that some chemicals, such as salt, do not perform properly when temperatures are too cold. Furthermore, when the ice melts and water runs on the side of the road or runway, the water transporting the chemicals is absorbed by the surrounding ground, which may be detrimental to the environment.
Still another method consists in using various types of devices having ice cutting and/or ice crushing capabilities for removing ice from the ground, without assistance from warming rays of the sun or from chemicals. However, such devices usually do not have the capability to treat surfaces covered by very hard ice. For instance, some devices cannot operate at all when the ice is too hard and/or too thick. Other devices are only capable of removing a partial layer of ice when the ice is too hard, thus leaving a remaining layer of ice on the ground. Such devices need to treat the same surface of ice several times, in order to completely remove a layer of ice covering that surface.
There is therefore a need for an ice pulverizing knife and an ice pulverizing device comprising an ice pulverizing knife.